How's my Driving

First topic message reminder :

Hi Folks.

Just back from a fortnight 'hols' In the South of England.

Have the rules of motorway driving now changed South of Watford?
Is the slow lane now the fast lane and the fast lane now the slow lane?

Mind you we don't have many miles of motorway in Scotland.

Sheep and log lorries are the main road hazzards where I live.
You don't know what fear is until you round a bend on a single track road and come face to face with a double loaded log lorry, especially when you spot the driver texting.

Must admit, never got past 50 miles an hour on the M25, more like 5 mph on it, seems when I decide to use it so does the whole of London and Kent

OPW
I have only been on the M25 once in my life. I did not sleep too well the night before.
On the day it was really quiet and I arrived at my destination two hours early!!

[That was 25+ years ago]

Doon

Back in those days, you were likely to be overtaken by yuppies in Porsches trying to set M25 lap records!

Whilst listening to Barry Manilow?

Marcus wrote:Whilst listening to Barry Manilow?

No, not back then. More likely the Carpenters I think

Doon the Water wrote:OPW
I have only been on the M25 once in my life. I did not sleep too well the night before.
On the day it was really quiet and I arrived at my destination two hours early!!

[That was 25+ years ago]

Doon, I'm pretty sure the M25 is 25 years old this very year. By and large I don't think it's too bad though I'm rarely on it at peak times to be fair.

Diggers

I think the last section was completed 25 years ago, various sections were completed over the ten or so years preceding 1986.

Yeah Mac, I just heard on the radio the other day that it was it's birthday in a fully "orbital" sense.

Doon the Water wrote:Mind you we don't have many miles of motorway in Scotland.

Sheep and log lorries are the main road hazzards where I live.
You don't know what fear is until you round a bend on a single track road and come face to face with a double loaded log lorry, especially when you spot the driver texting.

That's easy for you to say

red lorry yellow lorry, red lorry yellow lorry

Polish it in the corner of the room.

Doon the lack of sleep thing brings back memories of my first trip driving through Paris. i knew I had to use the periferique, and that makes the M25 seem like an empty country lane.

Drove into work this morning across the New Forest which is dual carriageway for about 10 miles. Solid line of traffic in the outside lane, hardly a car to be seen in the inside lane.

What a bunch of muppets

That's what I experienced D4S
But is it a South of Watford/Brummy thing?
M40 going south seemed to be the worst example.

Doon

I believe it is, the further south you get, the faster and more aggressive the driving becomes. I remember when I moved down here in the 80's, I had a meeting in London. One of the guys asked if I had driven in London before, which at that point I hadn't. He said there is only 1 rule in London. If your bumper is in front, you have right of way.

I've always used that rule and it seems to work. In London, he who hesitates is done for!

Cayenne has been sold. :somersault:

I go up and down the M40 quite a lot, from the M5 down to the Banbury junction, I am usually in the inside lane just doing under 90mph, and you would think I wasn't moving

OPW

£650 for a bottle of Old Parr Elizabethan yesterday at McTears whisky auction
Check your supplies.
Good auction, well above estimate prices.

£2,200 top price.

Doon

Mines is the Grand Old Parr, so called after the oldest man who ever lived Thomas Parr who was aged 152 years and 9 months 1483 to1635 or so it says on the bottle, mind you after few drams, its amazing how well you feel.

I must admit at £650 bottle would to scared to open it, in case I was disappointed with the taste

Just think of the two London 'Merchant Bankers' who paid a world record £52k and drank it over two nights.
That was about 5 years ago, no wonder we are in our current mess.

The collectors were laughing their socks off as you never drink really old whisky. They say that after 25/30 years it spoils.

NedB-H wrote:I actually get the impression when driving that motorways are about as safe as it gets.... certainly they feel like there's far less risk of an accident than city centres or 2 lane country roads. Dunno if the stats back that up.

well that showed me. Horrific stuff on the M5.

The police seem to think that a rugby club's bonfire smoke was the main cause.

Smoke across a motorway carriageway may have been a contributing factor. The cause is more likely tosspots driving too close together in limited visibility conditions.

I'd hazard a guess that most of those were 18-wheelers from mainland Europe

Hope this makes them think again about increasing the legal driving speed.

Don't think the legal driving speed limit has anything to do with it. The current limit is 70mph and anyone driving at that speed during conditions as they were on Friday night is as criminally guilty as anyone would be driving at 80 in those conditions.

Speed limits are there for ideal conditions. If I were driving within the current legal limits in conditions such as Friday I'd expect the full force of the law to come down on me

Whilst I concur with d4s's scathing assessment of American drivers, the motorway behaviour of lorries and, especially flat-fronted vans with the driver looking down on the tailhook of the van in front, driving at 70 mph up the MI (other M'ways doubtless apply), bloody horrifying. Tosspots to say the least, Steve Williams may have other descriptions.
I see a pasty company had two vehicles involved which, apart from the tragedy, is likely a terrible waste, especially to an ex-pat who hasn't seen a good pie, pasty, or Scotch egg for two years.

Davie
A lot of drivers on motorways, do not think what the safe speed is, they are only looking at the legal speed, so why increase to cause more bedlam

I agree, speed is not inherently dangerous, only inappropriate speed coupled with poor driving.

Re speed it also depends on the vehicle, sure in a brand new Merc the difference between 70 and 80 is negligible as they drive so well. Not so in a 12 year old transit van.

More accidents happen where speed is not the root cause. Most accidents occur on roads other than motorway and are as a result of driver error.

We've done this. It's also true the higher the speed more deaths. So although there are less accidents on motorways when they do happen they often lead to fatalities due to the increased speed.
One thing is certain in my mind, increasing the speed limit will mean more fatalities.

Diggers
Total agree.

Perhaps, although I'm pretty sure the statistics back up that no more people die on Germany's Autobahns (per capita) than the UK's Motorways despite sections of unrestricted speed. Although I do know that Germany (in fact Europes) roads are much better than those in the UK having driven from Manchester to Bavaria, whilst the driving in Germany/Austria and Switzerland tends to be of a higher standard(and more considerate) too, which may help account for a better accident rate.

kwinigolfer wrote:I see a pasty company had two vehicles involved which, apart from the tragedy, is likely a terrible waste, especially to an ex-pat who hasn't seen a good pie, pasty, or Scotch egg for two years.

You wouldn't get one with Ginsters either Kwini....

Think Davie is spot on, that the root cause is people not driving to conditions. It should be common sense that if you hit poor visibility, you slow down accordingly, yet you see people cruising through thick fog at 75 all the time. First rule of driving - make sure that if something appears in front of you, you're going slowly enough to stop before you hit it. BBC website has an interview with a bloke who just avoided the pileup (who also says it was just fog, nothing to do with bonfire smoke), saying he slowed right down and moved inside when he hit the fog, then watched cars speed past him at 70 and smack straight in to the side of a lorry.

On the subject of speed limits, I've seen French motorways carry signs which have two legal speed limits on, with the slower one next to a picture of rain. Something similar in this country would be a good idea.

Our stoopid town has just reduced the speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph, all the better for pedestrian and cyclists' safety.
Trouble is, cyclists still go through all the traffic lights and stop signs, never have lights, and do all this with impunity.
And skateboarders rocket down the hills much faster than the speed limit.
Love it!

Only traffic on the State's Interstates can travel at 65 mph, speed limit on all "State" roads is 50.